Timeline of Animated Film History Timeline of Animated Film History Timeline of Animated Film History The Evolution of Animated Film By David Nusair Updated July 04, 2016. Though one could be forgiven for assuming that the animation revolution began in 1937 with the release of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , the genre has actually existed almost as long as its live-action counterpart. This timeline charts animation's humble beginnings all the way through to its pervasive use within the realm of special effects: 1906 J. Stuart Blackton's Humorous Phases of Funny Faces is released. It is a three-minute short in which Blackton creates animating drawings of faces and people against a plain blackboard. 1908 The first short comprised solely of animated images, Emile Cohl's Fantasmagorie, receives its premiere in Paris. 1908 Humpty Dumpty Circus marks the first use of stop-motion animation on film. 1914 Earl Hurd invents the process of cel animation, which would revolutionize and dominate the industry for much of the 20th century.

1914 Gertie the Dinosaur is widely considered the first animated short to feature a distinguishable character, as cartoonist and animator Winsor McCay brings a walking, dancing dinosaur to life. continue reading below our video Great Singers Gone too Soon 1917 The first feature-length animated film, Quirino Cristiani's El apostol, is released. Unfortunately, he only known copy was destroyed in a fire. 1919 Felix the Cat makes his debut and becomes the first famous animated cartoon character. 1920 The first color cartoon, John Randolph Bray's The Debut of Thomas Cat, is released. 1922 Walt Disney animates his first animated short, Little Red Riding Hood. Though initially thought lost, a copy was found and restored in 1998. 1928 Mickey Mouse makes his debut. Though the first Mickey Mouse cartoon is technically the six-minute short Plane Crazy, the first Mickey Mouse short to be distributed is Steamboat Willie, which is also the first Disney cartoon with synchronized sound. 1929 Disney's iconic line of animated shorts, Silly Symphonies, kicks off its prolific run with The Skeleton Dance.

1930 Betty Boop debuts as a woman/dog hybrid in the short Dizzy Dishes. 1930 Warner Bros. Looney Tunes makes its debut with Sinkin' in the Bathtub. 1931 Quirino Cristiani's Peludopolis, which tells the story of a military coup against a corrupt president, boasts the first instance of sound within a feature-length animated film. There are no surviving copies of the movie in existence. 1932 The first full-color, three-strip Technicolor animated short, Flowers and Trees, is released. The film wins Disney the first-everAcademy Award for Animated Short Film 1933 King Kong, which features several stop-motion animated characters, is released. 1933 After starring in an extremely successful comic strip, Popeye makes his cartoon debut alongside Betty Boop in the seven-minute short Popeye the Sailor. 1933 Ub Iwerks invents the multiplane camera, which allows animators to create a three-dimensional effect within two-dimensional cartoons. 1935 The Russian film The New Gulliver becomes the first full-length feature to employ stop-motion animation for the bulk of its running time.

1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Walt Disney's first full-length animated feature and the first such production to emerge out of the United States, is released. It becomes a huge box office success and Disney was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for the achievement. 1938 Bugs Bunny makes his debut in Porky's Hare Hunt, though the character wasn't named until 1941. 1940 Tom the cat launches his unending pursuit of Jerry the mouse in the Oscar-nominated short Puss Gets the Boot. 1940 Woody Woodpecker arrives on the scene with a small role in the Andy Panda cartoon Knock, Knock. 1941 The first full-length animated musical, Mr. Bug Goes to Town, is released. 1946 Disney's first live-action film, Song of the South, is released and boasts several animated interludes. Because of its depiction of the African-American character Uncle Remus, the film has never been released on home media in the United States. 1949 Prolific stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen makes his debut with the creation of the title character in Mighty Joe Young.

1972 Ralph Bakshi's Fritz the Cat is released as the first X-rated animated feature in cinematic history. 1973 Computer-generated images are used for the very first time in a brief shot within Westworld. 1975 Revolutionary special-effects company Industrial Light & Magic is founded by George Lucas. 1982 Tron marks the first time that computer-generated images are used extensively in a film. 1986 Pixar's first short, Luxo Jr., is released. It is the first computer-animated short to receive an Academy Award nomination. 1991 Beauty and the Beast becomes the first fully animated film to receive an Oscar nomination for Best Picture. 1993 Jurassic Park becomes the first live-action film to feature photorealistic computer-animated creatures. 1995 The first computer-animated film, Toy Story , is released to theaters. The achievement is honored with a Special Achievement Academy Award . 1999 Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace marks the first film to use computer-generated imagery extensively and pervasively, in terms of its sets, special effects, and supporting characters. 2002 The Academy creates a Best Animated Feature category, with Shrek the first movie to win the Oscar.

2002 The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers features the first photorealistic motion captured character for a film, with Andy Serkis portraying Gollum. 2004 The Polar Express becomes the first fully-animated film to use motion capture technology to render all of its characters. 2005 Chicken Little becomes the first computer animated film to be released in 3D. 2009 James Cameron's groundbreaking Avatar is the first film to feature a fully CG 3D photorealistic world, 1st computer-animated feature film released, November 22, 1995 | EDN 1st computer-animated feature film released, November 22, 1995 PRINT PDF EMAIL On this day in tech history, "Toy Story" was released in theaters, becoming the first entirely computer-animated feature-length film. It was the first film produced by Pixar with Steve Jobs serving as an executive producer. Jobs bought the Computer Graphics Division of Lucasfilms in 1986 and made it an independent company called Pixar. That year it released "Luxo Jr.", the first 3D computer-animated film to be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar.

It featured the desk lamp often seen in the Pixar logo. Pixar produced short animated films to promote their computers and software. In 1989 it released the first commercial version of RenderMan, a software for rendering computer graphics in film. Pixar began working with Disney in 1991 to create a "computer-generated animated movie." That movie was "Toy Story" and it became the highest grossing film of 1995, making $192 million in the US, and $362 million worldwide. The sequel was released four years later and was the first film to be entirely created, mastered, and exhibited digitally. "Toy Story 2" made more money than the original, and 2010's "Toy Story 3" was the first animated film to make over $1 billion worldwide.

In 1996 Pixar director John Lasseter received a Special Achievement Oscar from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his "inspired leadership of the Pixar Toy Story Team resulting in the first feature-length computer animated film." Pixar's Ed Catmull, Alvy Ray Smith, Thomas Porter, and Tom Duff also received the Sciences Scientific and Engineering Academy Award for their pioneering inventions in digital image compositioning. Pixar was bought by The Walt Disney Company in 2006, and it has now released 14 feature films, many nominated for Academy Awards. In 2005 "Toy Story" was inducted into the National Film Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." See the first trailer below: Also see: Pixar - Cinemablography Pixar Pixar: Bringing the Pixel to Life By Derick Esch, Jake Dore, Ryan Fargo, and Sam Dougherty Pixar Animation Studios has a short history compared to most other Hollywood motion picture studios. Despite its short existence, Pixar has established itself as an industry leader in CGI and completely digital animated feature films. We’ve decided to take a deeper look at the impact that Pixar has had on the industrial and economic history of animated film.

The roots of Pixar Animation Studios can be traced back to Industrial Light and Magic, founded by George Lucas in 1975, which was responsible for creating the special effects needed for the Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) films. Pioneering the design and use of motion control cameras and optical compositing, the company worked closely with the Graphics Group, which was part of the computer division of Lucasfilm. Dr. Edwin Catmull worked for the Graphics Group as the Chief Technology Officer, and he is credited as the inventor of the alpha channel and particle effects, both of which revolutionized the computer animation technology at the time. Initially, the Graphics Group was mainly interested in producing animated backgrounds to be used in other films, but in 1984 the short film The Adventures of André and Wally B. (Alvy Ray Smith) was released as the company's first fully animated film. After being purchased by Steve Jobs for 5 million dollars in 1986, the Graphics Group was renamed Pixar Animation Studios and began to focus its efforts on perfecting the computer animation process. The Adventures of André and Wally B.

While Pixar initially struggled to stay financially successful, its best source of income was from a grouping of 79 television commercials produced for companies such as Tropicana, Listerine, and Lifesavers. These commercials were completely digital creations, and they served as practice for the animators while the company prepared to tackle their first full-length computer animated film. Also serving as practice were multiple shorts which Pixar created. In their future films, homages to these initial projects can be seen hidden within the picture or directly incorporated into the story (PixarTalk). Pixar Lifesavers Commercial Pixar Listerine Commercial In 1991, Disney approached Pixar with a contract worth 26 million dollars to produce 3 animated feature films. Despite the possibility of great financial success from this partnership, as late as 1994 Jobs considered selling the animation company to competitors such as Microsoft. Had this happened, Pixar and the films it produced most likely would have looked drastically different than they do today. However, Jobs decided to stick with the company, and when Toy Story (John Lasseter, 1995) was released, the company suddenly flourished financially, and it officially went public on November 29, 1995.

With Jobs' leadership and financial guidance, and John Lasseter's technically savvy and creative vision, Pixar developed their own in-house animation software, RenderMan and Marionette, and became the industry leader in CGI and animated feature films. In November of 1995, Pixar released Toy Story on a budget of 30 million dollars. Surprisingly, it nearly broke even in the first weekend by grossing over 29 million dollars. This movie was the first fully synthetic feature film to break down the barrier separating what is film with what is animation. It launched Pixar Animation Studios to an entirely new standard, grossing over 191 million in the United States alone. Its total worldwide gross was almost double that, at over 361 million dollars (The Numbers). At first, Pixar’s next film, A Bug’s Life (John Lasseter, 1998), was nowhere near as successful for the opening weekend, only grossing 291 thousand dollars. However, the worldwide gross exceeded Toy Story’s by about one million.

Pixar then created Toy Story 2 (John Lasseter, 1999), which somehow only earned 300 thousand dollars at the box office during its first weekend. Its budget was set at 90 million dollars, which was three times as much money spent on Toy Story and twice as much as A Bug’s Life. The U.S. gross was more than 245 million dollars while the worldwide gross landed at over 484 million dollars. From then on, Pixar would not spend less than 70 million on their budget for a feature length film. Why were these films so successful? At the time, Pixar was the only major studio besides Disney that had been successfully producing animated feature films, and therefore, dominated the market. Pixar had developed a formula for animation and storytelling that drew in their audiences. Their marketing strategies, combined with large budgets, produced success for each one of these films. Currently, Pixar’s average budget on a film is around 120 million dollars.

However, their recent films, including Toy Story 3 (Lee Unkrich, 2010) and Cars 2 (John Lasseter, 2011) had budgets of 200 million dollars. Their average U.S. gross is over 235 million dollars, roughly half of the average worldwide gross of over 556 million. The largest grossing film from Pixar is Toy Story 3, with close to 415 million dollars in U.S. gross and over 1 billion dollars in worldwide gross. Worldwide, Pixar’s total gross since 1995 is over 7 billon dollars, though their total budget reaches less than 1.5 billion dollars. In an unprecedented accomplishment, every feature film that Pixar has produced has made money rather than lost money. “Since Snow White (William Cottrell, 1937) was released, every major studio has tried to break into the animation business, and until now Disney was the only studio that had ever made a feature animated film that was a blockbuster. Pixar has now become the second studio to do that” (Rethink Reviews). Toy Story was the first computer generated, full-length, feature film.

The creative force of John Lasseter working with the financial genius, Steve Jobs, made a type of film that stood out over the Disney films of that time. Disney had been producing movies such as Pocahontas (Mike Gabriel, 1995) and A Goofy Movie (Kevin Lima, 1995), as well as The Lion King (Roger Allers, 1994) (Disney Movies Guide). John Lasseter stated that Pixar is focused on the story and the characters like any other film, yet isn’t the same as any other animation studio. The difference between Toy Story and other animations from Disney at the time is the introduction of technology. The animators have artistic backgrounds, but are replacing art supplies with technology. The futuristic transition allows the animators to work quickly and efficiently, creating these imitation, “plastic-like” animations while we lose more human elements of hand drawn art. The addition of the Pixar computer allows the artist to enter a digital realm, allowing them to create three-dimensional drawings. It saves time, requires fewer artists, and is edited while it is still in the middle of production.

The financial success of Toy Story by following Pixar’s own method of production has become a formula that has produced 11 successful films and hopefully many more in the future. Pixar did a remarkable job in terms of advancing the technology used in the production of animated films and shorts. The release of Toy Story in 1995 marked a critical moment in the history of film. It was the first film to be made without the use of any traditional opto-chemical photographic process. Instead, the entire film was produced digitally. The film also switches over from the conventional practice of the acting body and drawing hand to the use of generated pixel and computing processor. Pixar is without a doubt a very successful company, and it has a history of accomplishments to prove it. The company has received numerous awards for both feature length films as well as shorts since their beginning in 1979. This success carried on throughout the decades, especially after their merger with Disney.

Since the merger, several of their feature length films received more than fifty nominations for a variety of awards, including Ratatouille (Brad Bird, 2007), WALL-E (Andrew Stanton, 2008), and Up (Pete Docter, 2009). Since 2006, all of their movies have won at least one Academy Award, Grammy, and Golden Globe. The box office totals of Pixar's five most recent feature length films top totals of 500 million dollars each, with Toy Story 3 amassing a huge 1 billion dollars in worldwide gross. The quality of Pixar's work brought success to more than the company itself, as it impacted current presentation and format in modern cinema. There are now other animation studios competing with Pixar, and a wide acceptance of animation in modern films. Pixar has brought change to what audiences enjoy, and the film industry has adapted to the times. Most apparent in its influences from Pixar is DreamWorks Animation. Their string of animated movies like the Shrek (Andrew Adamson, 2001) series, Kung Fu Panda (Mark Osborne, 2008), and others has proved majorly successful for Paramount and DreamWorks.

This has created a bit of a rivalry with Pixar, and continued to push animation into the mainstream. Where there used to be cartoons and many classic animated films from Disney, we now see CGI as the dominant form of animation. What's striking is that these developments go far past animated movies, and affect the majority of movies today. We now see movies like Star Wars featuring fully animated creatures interacting with people, and countless movies with CGI for the subtlest of purposes. Pixar seems to have pushed the industry in this direction of technology exploration and even beyond that. Its influence is massive. While it is interesting how the precedents set by Pixar helped to establish technology driven films like Avatar (James Cameron, 2009), the highest grossing film of all time, there is something bad about the overuse of this technology in film. Incredible CGI works great for CGI movies, but when it is utilized in blockbuster after blockbuster, the viewer loses the immersion of everything being seen through the camera. Whether Hollywood is really abusing this latest trend is hard to say, but there’s no doubt that Pixar helped set up this CGI infatuation in film. As Wired Magazine notes, “Each Pixar film has pushed the threshold of photorealism...” (Austin P.

3), and while the technology clearly works in favor of Pixar and many other films, it may not be the best direction for the rest of the industry. As films and technology continue to change, older films that used CGI become less and less convincing (The Mummy, Star Wars Episode 1, etc.). Older movies with well-made props and effects can be more convincing than many animated works, which suggests that the industry may want to consider taking animation with a grain of salt and using it for the projects that truly benefit from it. Pixar's 26 Academy Awards and continually profitable films speak for the success that they have discovered through innovation. This has changed presentation throughout the film industry, which continues to benefit from the new heights reached by the studio. It will be interesting to see where Hollywood uses technology in the future and what will become profitable and convincing in the use of computer-generated effects. Works Cited Pixar Luxo Jr. is completed. The short film, John Lasseter’s directorial debut, is unveiled in August at SIGGRAPH and then screened for general audiences at Los Angeles-area theaters in November. Luxo Jr. will be the first three-dimensional computer animated film to be nominated for the Best Animated Short Film Oscar®.

1986 1987 Red’s Dream is completed. Its rain effect and complexity of lighting pose new technological challenges for the team and allow a study in creating mood and atmosphere. A portion of the film is rendered entirely on the Pixar Image Computer. Also directed by John Lasseter, the short film has its premiere in July at SIGGRAPH. 1987 1988 Tin Toy is completed. A partially completed version is screened for SIGGRAPH audiences in August, and the film receives its official premiere later that year at the Ottawa International Film Fest. Tin Toy will be the first computer animated film to receive an Academy Award® when it is named Best Animated Short Film of 1988. Pixar’s new animation system, Menv (short for "modeling environment"), comes online. 2000 2001 Monsters, Inc. is released in theaters on November 2, accompanied by For the Birds. Monsters, Inc. reaches over $100 million in domestic box-office in just 9 days—faster than any animated film in history.

It will receive two Academy Award® nominations, including Best Song; Randy Newman will take home the Oscar® for "If I Didn't Have You," from the Monsters, Inc. soundtrack. Rob Cook, Loren Carpenter and Ed Catmull receive an Academy Award of Merit® for Significant Advances in the Field of Motion Picture Rendering. Pixar now numbers over 600 employees. Co-founder Ed Catmull is named Pixar's President. 2001 2002 Mike's New Car, the first-ever Pixar short featuring characters from another Pixar film, premieres on September 17. It is featured as part of the Monster, Inc. DVD and VHS release. The short will receive an Academy Award® nomination for Best Animated Short Film. "a bug's land" attraction opens on October 7 at Disney California Adventure Park. 2002 2003 Finding Nemo is released in theaters on May 30, accompanied by a remastered version of Knick Knack. Finding Nemo breaks opening weekend box-office records domestically for an animated feature. Finding Nemo will be nominated for four Academy Awards® and win the Oscar® for Best Animated Feature.

Boundin' premieres and will be nominated for the Academy Award® as Best Animated Short Film. Brave is released in theaters on June 22, accompanied bythe short La Luna. Brave is nominated and wins the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature Film . Partysaurus Rex, Time Travel Mater, and The Legend of Mor'du are all released. 2012 2013 Monsters University is released in theaters on June 21, accompanied by the short The Blue Umbrella. ABC Televised special Toy Story Of Terror and Tales From Radiator Springs (Hiccups, Spinning, Bugged), are all released. 2013 Toy Story That Time Forgot, Pixar's Holiday TV special, aired on December 2, 2014 on ABC. 2014 2015 After premiering at the 68th Cannes Film Festival in May, Inside Out was released in North America on June 19, 2015, accompanied by the short film LAVA. Inside Out went on to receive several awards, including an Academy Award®, BAFTA Award, Golden Globe Award, Critics' Choice Award, Annie Award, and Satellite Award for Best Animated Feature.

2015-1 2015 (cont.) The Good Dinosaur premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on November 17, 2015. It was accompanied by the short film Sanjay's Super Team. 2015-2 2016 Finding Dory premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on June 8, 2016, and was released in the United States on June 17, 2016. Finding Dory is ranked as the highest-grossing animated debut of all time. It was accompanied by the Short Film Piper. 2016 ASIFA Central – Midwest Chapter of the International Animated Film Society Newsletter Index Toy Story: The First Computer Animated Feature by Byron Grush "We're storytellers who happen to use computers. Story and characters come first and that is what drives everything we do," says "Toy Story's" director, John Lasseter. And everything John Lasseter does brings to the animation process that unique story-telling ability that sets his work apart from the crowd and sets standards that make us forget we are watching renderings made on a computer.

Lasseter, a former Disney animator, is perhaps known best for the short films he has directed for Pixar, including "Luxo, Jr.", "Red's Dream", the Academy Award winning, "Tin Toy" (which may have part of the inspiration for Toy Story), and "Knick Knack". Disney and Pixar have teamed up again to produce "Toy Story", the first full-length computer animated feature film. Due to be released in November, 1995, you can get a preview of the film on the Disney world wide web site, . In the past, Disney has struggled with the integration of computer animation into its films, attempting too little too soon in "Tron", using the computer for layout in "The Mouse Detectives", or mismatching whole scenes as in "Beauty and the Beast". This time, the success or failure of the film will depend a great deal on how well the look and feel of the computer generated characters reinforce the Disney formula of art, story, music and famous actor's voices. Borrowing from Raggedy Ann and Andy a little, "Toy Story's" toy characters come to life when people are not present.

There is also a hint of the conflict between tradition and new technology as the old favorite toy, a pull-string cowboy doll, is threatened by the arrival of an space-age action figure complete with laser gun. The older toys include Mr. Potato Head and a Slinky Dog, and a Bo Peep figurine lamp. The most intriguing concept in the story revolves around the venture into the outside world that leads the cowboy and his advisory into the world of the "mutant" toys. Here, the application of the computer makes the most sense in its potential to create a surrealistic and bazaar environment. The old tried and true is in effect, as Disney taps into some box office talent. Tom Hanks is the voice of Woody, the cowboy, while Tim Allen play Buzz Lightyear, the action figure. Somehow, however, I imagine that Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head and Annie Potts as Bo Peep will probably steal the show. Music for the picture is composed by Randy Newman and will be more integrated into the emotions of the plot, rather than following the standard animated musical style found in other Disney movies, according to Lasseter.

Most of the animators and other staff who worked on "Toy Story", and some reports number them in the 100 to 150 range, were from traditional backgrounds with experience in clay, puppet or hand drawn animation. Pixar wrote some proprietary software, especially for network rending of the complex and time-consuming scenes of the neighborhoods and environments. Expect to see lots of articles about the technology used in this movie. Already there have been a few in Animation Magazine, Computer Graphics World and Cinemafantasitc. The stills I have seen remind me of characters from "Tin Toy" and "Knick Knack", while the lighting and sets seem to have gone to yet another level, allowing some dramatic ambiance usually absent from computer animated films. What I'm hoping for is the subtle and touching movement Lasseter achieved in "Luxo Jr.", which confirmed him in my mind, at least, as the first computer animator able to bring life to what can sometimes be a very cold and mechanical medium. history of animation Era You don’t have to be a cartoonist to have animation be a big part of your life. Animation is everywhere—in our homes, schools, work, and everywhere there’s a screen.

And if you grew up in the United States, chances are you’ve witnessed seminal accomplishments in animation history without even knowing it. Does Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ring a bell? What about Toy Story…or The Flintstones? These works marked important milestones in animation, an art form that continuously challenges its creators to push technology so artists can to bring to life what the mind can imagine. Let’s celebrate it. Y ou don’t have to be a cartoonist to have animation be a big part of your life. Animation is everywhere—in our homes, schools, work, and everywhere there’s a screen. And if you grew up in the United States, chances are you’ve witnessed seminal accomplishments in animation history without even knowing it. Does Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs ring a bell? What about Toy Story…or The Flintstones? These works marked important milestones in animation, an art form that continuously challenges its creators to push technology so that anything that can be imagined can also be brought to life. 1 American Era The CGI (computer generated imagery) revolutionized animation. A principal difference of CGI animation compared to traditional animation is that drawing is replaced by 3D modeling, almost like a virtual version of stop-motion.

A form of animation that combines the two and uses 2D computer drawing can be considered computer aided animation. 1984 The Adventures of Andre & Wally B This short film was the first fully CGI-animated film, created by The Graphics Group, the precursor to Pixar. 1964 THE ADVENTURES OF ANDRE & WALLY B The Adventures of Andre and Wally B., the first fully CGI-animated film short 1987 The simpsons The Simpsons is an American adult animated sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company. It is the longest-running American sitcom, the longest-running American animated program, and in 2009 it surpassed Gunsmoke as the longest-running American scripted primetime television series. LONGEST-RUNNING Disney's Toy Story Movie, Trailer, Release Date : 1995 Shop @ eBay Movie Description The first production from Walt Disney Pictures' Pixar Studios is the ground-breaking computer-animated Toy Story. The film was the first feature film to fully utilize CGI (Computer Generated Imagery), and is nearly unanimously hailed as the benchmark film for animation.

Aside from being technically revolutionary, Toy Story features a virtual "Who's Who" of contributors, from executive producer Steve Jobs, director John Lasseter, music by Randy Newman, and voicings by such iconic performers as Tom Hanks, Don Rickles, Tim Allen and Jim Varney. The film also introduces such unforgettable characters as Buzz Lightyear, Woody and Mr. Potato Head. The critical and box-office success of Toy Story spawned a nearly endless legacy of two sequels, merchandising tie-ins, video games and theme park attractions, not to mention the impact on the film industry itself in terms of what CGI was capable of. Toy Story's dazzling graphics and timeless characters are a treat for all ages. Most movie fans consider Toy Story to be one of the best Pixar movies .

Animated Films ANIMATED FILMS Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Examples The Emergence of Pixar: A division of Lucasfilm (and Industrial Light and Magic (ILM)), created in 1979 and known as the Graphics Group, was purchased by Apple Computer's Steve Jobs for $5 million, renamed Pixar Animation Studios, and made an independent company in 1986. [Note: ILM had created the startling, first completely CGI-animated character - the 'stained-glass knight' in Young Sherlock Holmes (1985), bringing the film a Best Visual Effects nomination.] Pixar Studios (and director John Lasseter) and Disney, in a 1991 deal worth $26 million, created the first completely computer-generated animated feature film - the landmark Toy Story (1995) - Pixar's feature debut film, and everything evolved from there. The visuals were entirely generated from computers, creating a wonderfully-realistic 3-D world with lighting, shading, and textures, that included real toys in supporting roles (Etch-A-Sketch, Slinky Dog, the plastic toy soldiers, Mr.

Potato Head, etc.). The story itself dealt with the anxiety experienced by a toy (cowboy Woody) upon the arrival of a rival plaything (spacetoy Buzz Lightyear)-- mirroring the tension felt by a child when a younger sibling is born. The tale also referenced the historical change in genre emphasis in the 50s when westerns were supplanted by science-fiction films. It scored three Oscar nominations: Best Original Score, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Original Song ("You've Got a Friend"), and at the box-office totaled $192 million (domestic) and $362 million (worldwide). DreamWorks and Pacific Data Images (PDI) released the second computer-animated feature film in history - the adult-oriented Antz (1998), with Woody Allen's voice for a misfit, individualist worker ant named Z. At about the same time, A Bug's Life (1998), a children's-oriented, computer animated tale based upon Aesop's fable The Ant and the Grasshopper, was released by Pixar and Disney (their second teaming).

Disney also released in 1995 the hand-drawn animation Pocahontas (1995), the studio's 33rd feature-length animated movie and the first to be based on actual events and people. The surprise hit of 1995, however, was Best Picture-nominated Babe (1995), the charming and highly entertaining story of the title character - a talking barnyard pig with a talent for sheep herding. Disney released two hand-drawn animations in the next two years, the dark and ambitious Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996) based upon the Victor Hugo novel, and Hercules (1997) about the mythological strong man, and Fox released the disappointing Anastasia (1997).

The year 1998 also showcased other animated films, including the low-budget Rugrats Movie (1998) (based upon the characters on Nickelodeon's TV series), Disney's hand-drawn animated Chinese folk tale Mulan (1998) (Disney's 36th feature-length animated film), and DreamWorks SKG's' epic - the animated musical feature The Prince of Egypt (1998) about the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt - and the most expensive classically-animated feature at the time, budgeted at $60 million. Pixar's sequel to its successful 1995 computer-animated hit was released in 1999 with Disney (their third collaboration) - Toy Story 2 (1999), again with Woody the Cowboy and Buzz Lightyear.

So were Disney's Tarzan (1999), the first full-length, hand-drawn animated feature about Edgar Rice Burrough's King of the Jungle, and two hand-drawn animations from Warner Bros: the critically-acclaimed animated adventure Iron Giant (1999) by director Brad Bird (his feature debut), about a fifty-foot robot befriended by a nine year-old boy, and the animated musical The King and I (1999). Sony Pictures brought to life E.B. White's classic children's story Stuart Little (1999) featuring a clothes-wearing and talking white mouse (voice of Michael J. Fox) - it was a hugely successful film, with a combination of computer animated characters and live action. Animations at the Start of the New Century: Walt Disney Pictures was very busy in the year 2000, releasing the computer-animated Dinosaur (2000) about prehistoric life, and the hand-drawn animated comedy-adventure The Emperor's New Groove (2000).

DreamWorks also released its second feature-length animated film The Road to El Dorado (2000) (loosely based on The Man Who Would Be King (1975)), and Fox produced the visually-striking science fiction epic Titan A.E. (2000) combining classic animation and CGI (before closing down its traditional animation division). The second collaboration of DreamWorks and PDI was for the immensely successful (the box-office champ of 2001 and the first Best Animated Feature Film Oscar winner) and colorful fairy-tale farce Shrek (2001) , a computer-animated film that added elements to CGI such as fire, liquids, digital humans, and clothing, and featured a green, swamp-living, misfit ogre (with voice of Mike Myers).

The most talked-about (but commercially unsuccessful) computer-animated film of the early 21st century, however, was Sony's Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within (2001), a photo-realistic (hyperReal), science-fiction tale by director Hironobu Sakaguchi (creator of the interactive, role-playing, futuristic video game) that advertised itself as "Fantasy Becomes Reality." It simulated human actors with CG and was the first computer-generated feature film based entirely on original designs - no real locations, people, vehicles, or props were used. Kaena: The Prophecy (2004), the first full-length 3D-generated animated film from France, with voices of Kirsten Dunst, Richard Harris, and Anjelica Huston, told a sci-fi fantasy tale about a free-spirited teenaged girl who must solve the mystery of a dying 100-mile tall tree.

Writer/director Kerry Conran's feature film debut, the retro-futuristic sci-fi adventure film set in the late-1930s Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004) was the first live-action studio release in which every scene was at least partly computer-generated - supplemented with human actors (including Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow). The entire special-effects laden movie was shot against blue/green screens with human actors in front. Similar in sheer creative inventiveness was the ground-breaking Waking Life (2001), an impressionistic and stylized R-rated film from director Richard Linklater - it was first digitally shot as a live-action film before 30 artists graphically 'painted' the characters via computer (with a process called "interpolated rotoscoping") to create the illusion of a cartoon in motion. [Similarly, Sin City (2005) and Linklater's own A Scanner Darkly (2005) digitally rotoscoped live action.] Also, Paramount's Nickelodeon films introduced a totally-original computer-animated feature starring a whiz kid who saves his alien-kidnapped parents, titled Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001).

And Warner Bros.' poorly-received summer release, Osmosis Jones (2001), with part live-action and part-animation, was about a white blood cell cop (voice of Chris Rock) who hunted down lethal germs in a zoo-worker's (Bill Murray) body. Disney's Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001), its first cartoon produced in 70 mm since The Black Cauldron (1985), blended CGI with traditional hand-drawn animation, and was based on the Jules Verne action epic, but it faced stiff competition from other animated features. Disney's hand-drawn, big-budget, sci-fi animation Treasure Planet (2002), an outer-space version of Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, flopped. Another Disney hand-drawn effort, Lilo & Stitch (2002), about a lonely Hawaiian girl and her blue extra-terrestrial friend, was the studio's sole box-office hit in recent memory. The widely-anticipated Monsters, Inc. (2001), Disney's fourth computer-animated comedy with Pixar, featured a one-eyed, lime-colored ball named Mike Wazowski (with voice of Billy Crystal), and his scare-factory buddy James P.

"Sulley" Sullivan (voice of John Goodman). As of 2013, it was the seventh-highest grossing animation of all-time. 20th Century Fox's animation-adventure Ice Age (2002) starred creatures that are trying to reunite a human baby with its parents. The computer-generated characters include Manny - a woolly mammoth (voice of Ray Romano), Sid - a talkative sloth (voice of John Leguizamo), Diego - a saber-toothed tiger (voice of Denis Leary), along with Scrat - a prehistoric squirrel that desperately tries to stash an acorn. [It was followed by a sequel Ice Age 2: The Meltdown (2006).] The second film from the same team was Robots (2005), a slapstick, science-fiction animated film about clunky, nuts-and-bolts androids featuring Robin Williams (his first voice in an animated feature since 1992) as the voice of Fender.

Due to pressures brought to bear on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the reknowned organization finally acknowledged that full-length cartoons (animations!) deserve their own Oscar awards category, Best Animated Feature Film, beginning with films eligible in the year 2001. According to the Academy's rules, an 'animated film' must be at least 70 minutes in length, have a significant amount of major animated characters, and be at least 75% animated. The first animated feature film to win the Oscar in the new category was DreamWorks SKG' revisionistic Shrek (2001) . It counteracted the traditional Disney animation formula for a fairy tale with its main character - an ugly, greenish ogre (voice of Mike Myers) who saved pouty, fiercely independent Princess Fiona (voice of Cameron Diaz) from a female, purple fire-breathing dragon, with a pop music soundtrack (featuring songs by Joan Jett, Smash Mouth, and others). The wildly-successful Finding Nemo (2003) - Pixar's and Disney's fifth collaboration, won the Oscar for Best Animated Feature Film!

The undisputed box-office champ of its year, it was the tale of Marlin - a widowed clown fish's (voice by Albert Brooks) search in the Pacific Ocean, with a dopey and forgetful blue tang fish named Dory (voice by Ellen DeGeneres), for missing son Nemo with a withered fin. [It faced stiff competition from the wildly inventive and surreal French animated film The Triplets of Belleville (2003).] DreamWorks' version of Finding Nemo with an underwater gangster theme, the studio's first CGI-animated film, was the successful Shark Tale (2004), with voices provided by Will Smith, Renee Zellweger, Jack Black, Robert DeNiro and Angelina Jolie. Director/screenwriter Brad Bird's ingenious Oscar-winning Best Animated Feature, the action-adventure The Incredibles (2004), Disney's and Pixar's sixth collaboration, was Pixar's first PG-rated film and the longest CG animated film to date (at 115 minutes). It told the tale of paunchy Bob "Mr. Incredible" Parr (voice of Craig T.

Nelson), an ex-do-good Superhero suffering a mid-life crisis and living under-cover in suburbia, with his restless wife Helen (voice of Holly Hunter) - former rubber-limbed masked vigilante Elastigirl. Their children included long-haired daughter Violet (voice of Sarah Vowell) - capable of being invisible, son Dash (voice of Spencer Fox) - who could travel at supersonic speed, and baby Jack-Jack. The entire family was lured back into super-herodom against the evil Syndrome (voice of Jason Lee). With its four Oscar nominations (including Best Animated Feature Film), it was the most-nominated animated film since Aladdin (1992) (with five nominations). Another Pixar CGI marvel, the adventure comedy Cars (2006), directed by John Lasseter, told an anthropomorphic story about a stock-car (Lightning McQueen, voice of Owen Wilson) on a journey to the races - including nostalgia for Route 66 in a forgotten town called Radiator Springs. In early 2006, the Walt Disney Co. bought longtime partner Pixar Animation Studios Inc.

for $7.4 billion in stock, after a twelve year relationship in which Disney co-financed and distributed Pixar's animated films and split the profits (their previous deal expired in June 2006 after Pixar's delivery of Cars (2006)). Summary: Disney's Animated Collaborations with Pixar In summary, Disney's run of successful animations with Pixar are provided below. Their first five feature films grossed more than $2.5 billion (worldwide), giving Pixar the highest per film average gross of any production company at the time.

Question: Released in 1995, which was the first fully computer- animated feature film?
Answer: 'TOY STORY'